At New Mexico Compound, Kidnappers Train Children To Commit School Shootings

author: ap

A man arrested at a makeshift compound in New Mexico where 11 children and the remains of a boy were found was training the children to commit school shootings, according to court documents.

Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, the father of a missing Georgia boy, was conducting weapons training at the squalid compound in the northern part of the state, documents filed in 8th judicial district court in Taos County court on Wednesday say, citing the foster parent of one of the 11 children.

Authorities discovered the squalid compound in Amalia last Friday during a search for Wahhaj's son, a 3-year-old who went missing 8 months ago from Jonesboro, Georgia. Wahhaj was the prime suspect.

Eight members of the Taos County Sheriff's Office converged on the residence in Amalia, described by authorities as a "makeshift compound" surrounded by tires and an earthen berm that had no electricity or running water, after securing a warrant to search the remote property for the missing 3-year-old boy. They rescued 11 children, ages 1 to 15, after an armed standoff with one of two men who have now been arrested.

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[Image: Image: A man walks through a compound in Amalia, New Mexico]
Taos County Solid Waste Department Director Edward Martinez surveys property conditions at a disheveled compound at Amalia, New Mexico, on Aug. 7. Searchers found the remains of a boy at the compound, which was raided in search of a missing Georgia child. Morgan Lee / AP
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A man arrested at a makeshift compound in New Mexico where 11 children and the remains of a boy were found was training the children to commit school shootings, according to court documents.

Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, the father of a missing Georgia boy, was conducting weapons training at the squalid compound in the northern part of the state, documents filed in 8th judicial district court in Taos County court on Wednesday say, citing the foster parent of one of the 11 children.

Wahhaj "had trained the child in the use of an assault rifle in preparation for future school shootings," the parent said, according to the document.

Authorities discovered the compound in Amalia last Friday during a search for Wahhaj's son, a 3-year-old who went missing 8 months ago from Jonesboro, Georgia. Wahhaj was the prime suspect.

Once there, they came across Wahhaj plus four other adults and 11 hungry kids ranging in age from 1 to 15. But they did not find his son.

NewsHow a distress message led to finding 11 children in 'filthy' compound
They arrested the adults and charged them with child abuse. Prosecutors asked for Wahhaj to be held without bail.

When investigators returned to the property on Monday, they found remains of a boy. A positive identification is still pending, but officials believe they belong to Wahhaj's son, Abdul-ghani. The child's fourth birthday was the same day the remains were discovered.

Wahhaj had multiple firearms, including an assault rifle, the authorities said. They also believed there to be a shooting range on the property.

The conspiracy charge to commit school shootings marks the latest bizarre twist in the case. Wahhaj is accused of leaving Georgia in December with Abdul-ghani; the boy's mother told police that Wahhaj wanted to perform an exorcism on him because he thought he was possessed by the devil. He took him to a park but never returned, the mother said, according to an extradition warrant.

Abdul-ghani struggled with seizures and hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, a birth defect caused by lack of oxygen and blood flow, and could not walk, the warrant said.

Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, 39, taken into custody on suspicions he kidnapped his 3-year old disabled son from Georgia, is the son of a Brooklyn imam, Siraj Wahhaj. The boy's whereabouts are presently unknown.

The senior Wahhaj won a settlement from New York City, amid complaints certain Muslim mosques were being monitored by police illegally, including his — Masjid al-Taqwa — located at Bedford Avenue and Fulton Street in Brooklyn.

The senior Wahhaj was an unindicted co-conspirator in a plot to bomb New York City landmarks in 1993, which resulted in the conviction of blind Egyptian sheikh, Omar Abdel Rahman, who died in prison.

A source told PIX11 that before the dismantling of certain, NYPD intelligence operations, undercover cops were buying weapons at the mosque. The evidence was turned over to federal prosecutors.